Day 2, Part 3 - Arukeyri, Iceland

By now we were getting tired (see Part 1 here and Part 2 here) and the day couldn’t get any better, right??

We stopped for lunch that was included with the tour - low expectations, but it was surprisingly good tomato soup and grilled Arctic Char - and hubby found a bag of Icelandic Oreo’s at the attached market. Score! 

(They taste the same, but he was disappointed in how few cookies, er I mean ‘biscuits’ were in the box. 🙄)

 Iceland has no predators (other than the arctic fox) and no snakes

I forget exactly why we stopped at the next spot - I was distracted by Icelandic SHEEP!

And the view. So beautiful.

Our last stop - 

after almost 6 hours on the road, 

with the temperature dropping and snow starting to fall - 

was Godafoss Waterfall*. 

I was expecting something tall and skinny,

not a rival to Niagara Falls.

Simply amazing.

To the right of the main waterfall

* “Foss” means waterfall, so this is the waterfall at Goda.

 Downstream 

 Looking back to the main falls

 Trestle bridge and visitors center on the right

 Tiny bridge to nowhere (but a good photo prop)

Day 2, Part 2 - Arukeyri, Iceland

I thought the mud pots and fumaroles would be the highlight of the day (see Part 1 here) but . . . gotta admit this day had multiple highlights. 

I wasn’t expecting to see a huge steam crater in Iceland (as opposed to impact/meteor craters). 

This one at Fjallasyn, like the crater in Mammoth Lakes, was formed when water was trapped above lava, turned to steam and eventually exploded. Can you imagine the power behind that??! Crazy.

Then we were on to Dimmuborgir 

for volcanic steam vents, 

lava pillars,

Daytime northern lights? Or ‘just’ a rainbow?

the legend of the 13 Lads (represented by the 13 vents in Dimmuborgir),

and - be still my heart -

visible earthquake faults/tectonic plates - the dividing line between the Eurasian and North American faults. 

 The fault continues past the red arrow 

Of course Iceland has these amazing things…all together…in one place….

Such an overachiever. 

Day 2, Part 1- Arukeyri, Iceland

Oops, took a nap and read my book instead of blogging and now I’m behind…

Today’s tour was so amazing, and we took so many pictures, that I’m going to divide it into separate sections 

Pretty ship, pretty harbor

(also because uploading with the ship’s internet is slow and finicky…)

 Geothermal energy plant. Iceland has no gas/coal mines, so all non-geothermal energy has to be imported. Expensive!

We were up and heading for the tour bus at 0630 - not my fav time of day. 😂

So many people wanted this tour that they had 4 full buses, 

which meant some of us got to do the sites in reverse order. Works for me! 

When we signed up, we were most interested in the boiling mud pots 

 Mud pots

and fumaroles, 

Steaming fumarole

so we were pleased when Námafjall Hverir was our first stop. 

It was so! much! more! than we were expecting.

Absolutely amazing place, 

 Sunrise was after the 45 minute drive from the harbor

even at sunrise, 

in 26° weather, 

 Sulphur, which was mined to make gunpowder

with rotten egg fumes swirling all around us. 

Steam craters coming up next!

 Looking back from the road